The world is evolving around the internet and digital solutions. Individuals and firms are swifting towards buying and selling things over the internet. Selling online can help a business reach new markets and increase sales and revenue. Searching for products and services online can save time and money by, allowing one to find the best prices without having to do all the legwork. Thus, this project.
Ventri is an E-commercce application that connects buyers and sellers together, and supports information exchange between them. Ventri saves the buyers the stress of legwork in searching and buying a product, thereby overcoming the barrier of distance and ttime. It is aso a platform where merchants (business owners) create awareness of their business, reach a wider market and maxmize business profit.
Ventri focuses on connecting buyers and sellers that are within a close rane of distance. Therefore, it will not be competing with other e-commerce brands, where buyers and sellers from different locations, both far and near are connected together. In Ventri, the buyer can easily see the different stores around his area, their respective proximity range to his location and their available products. This provides the buyer with the choice of either requesting a delivery or easily picking up the product from the store.
Only a few competitors exist in the market as the concept is relatively new and this increases the chances of the application to outshine the others, thereby creating a business opportunity and eventually generating revenue.
Ventri is targeted at two categories of users; The Merchants and The Buyers
In order to create an optimal product for the users, I carried out a research to understand the users better and how they feel about the already existing system of buying and selling online. In the course of this research, I carried out surveys and questionnaire, user interviews, Empathy map and user persona.
I interviewed three users in person, one being a merchant and the other two customers. The aim was to understand what motivates them and frustrates them about buying and selling products online.
I created an online survey questionnaire to better understand the users and their experiences about buying and selling products online.
I got the following insights from the research I carried out;
Lack of Capital: 40% of the users who are merchants pointed out that lack of capital to get a physical shop, made them to start selling their products onlineGetting a New and Larger Market: About 15% of the users, who are merchants and have a physical shop pointed out that in order to create awareness and reach a larger market, they had to establish an online presence.Over 30% of the users indicated that most times what they order is not what they actually get and this could be frustrating.Lack of Trust: some of the users pointed out because of how fraud is increasing over the internet, they don’t really trust doing business online, so as to not to be victims of fraudsters.Saves Time and Stress: Buying and selling online enhances a faster business transaction.From the research findings, the major challenge faced in online buying and selling include:
Absence of online verificationNot able to see and feel the quality of the product you are buying before purchaseDifficulty in maintaining an online businessVerification Of UsersThe details of the users and their business (in the case of a merchant) would be verified upon signing up into the platform.
Desired Proximity RangeThe users (customers)can search for a particular product in shops within their desired proximity range. Hence, he would be able to see all the shops within that proximity range that have that particular product.
Delivery RequestThe users are provided with the option of either going in person to pick up the product or placing an order for delivery.
Track DeliveryIn the case of delivery, the customer can track the delivery order.
Product NotificationThe users (merchant) are notified when they are running short of a particular product.
In order to explore,refine and communicate my ideas better, I did a rough sketch of the work, hence providing a brief account and general outline of the project.
This is the visual design of the app. It captures the look and feel of the product.
The sign up is split into two; for the merchants and the customers. During the sign up, relevant details of the users are collected.
The details of the merchants are first verified to ensure they are a trusted business brand before they are registered on the platform.
The users can easily search for any product of their choice using the filter, where he can indicate the proximity range of the shop where he intends to buy the product from.
The details of the merchants are first verified to ensure they are a trusted business brand before they are registered on the platform.
Once a product is confirmed available within the proximity range of the buyer, he adds it to his cart and could proceed to purchase it through delivery or go in person to buy it.
if the buyer request for a delivery, he gets a message on the success of his order and is able to track the delivery.
Everyday, we keep adjusting towards a stress-free lifestyle. Nobody wants to go through the stress of moving from one shop to the other searching for a particular product or thinking of how to get the product. Ventri saves one that stress and also helps merchants/shop owners in creating awareness for their business, thus creating and maintaining an online presence for them.
As almost everything is done over the internet, there is also the need for security of privacy to be ensured and online verification of every account even in e-commerce business. And this wraps it up.